A shallow etch at the trailing edge rail that allows the slider to fly closer to the recording medium and exhibit less sensitivity to roll. The slider includes a support structure and at least one rail having side edges and an air bearing surface raised above the support structure. At least one of the rails comprises a magnetic element disposed on the support structure. The edges of the rail adjacent to the magnetic element are etched to minimize the fly height of the magnetic element over the disk while preventing collision of the rail with the disk during roll conditions. The etched features of the rail create relieved trailing edge portions where the edges of the rail adjacent to the magnetic element are lower than the air bearing surface but are higher than the support structure. The shallow etch in the air bearing surface minimizes the difference between the minimum mechanical slider/disk spacing and the magnetic head/disk spacing which in turn allows optimization of transducer spacing. The edges of the air bearing surface adjacent the magnetic element are shortened by reactive ion etching or ion milling.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method for making a slider for optimizing head to disk spacing, comprising the steps of: forming a support structure having side edges, a leading and a trailing edge; forming at least one air bearing surface on the support structure, the air bearing surface having side edges and facing the moving recording disk, the air bearing surfaces providing a mounting surface for a magnetic head; and removing a portion of the air bearing surface only at a side edge of the air bearing surface and proximate the magnetic head to increase the spacing between the disk and the slider.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of removing a portion of the air bearing surface only adjacent both sides of and proximate to the magnetic head.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of providing the surface for mounting the magnetic head further comprises the step of positioning the magnetic head at the center of the slider.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of removing the portion of the air bearing surface comprises the step of completely removing the portion down to the support structure.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of removing the portion of the air bearing surface comprises the step of removing the portion to a level below the air bearing surface but above the support structure.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of removing the portion of the air bearing surface further comprises the step of removing the portion by reactive ion etching techniques.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of removing the portion of the air bearing surface further comprises the step of removing the portion by ion milling.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of removing a portion of the air bearing surface further comprises the steps of shortening the air bearing surface relative to the trailing edge of the support structure, the head being formed at the trailing edge of the shortened air bearing surface at a distance from the trailing edge of the support structure.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
July 15, 1997
July 23, 2002
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